Soviet Sniper

Roza Shanina was born in 1924 in the Northern Russian village of Yedma in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Running away from home to attend school at the age of fourteen, she went on to became a kindergarten teacher before signing up for the Soviet military in 1941. Graduating from the Central Women’s Sniper Training School with honours, she went on to serve on the frontline and was awarded 2nd and 3rd class Orders of Glory and the Medal for Courage. She died in battle whilst shielding a wounded artillery officer in January 1945

John Walter, born in Glasgow in 1951, is among the world’s most prolific writers on small arms—author of seventy books, translated into more than a dozen languages. Walter has worked with edged weapons, bladed tools, firearms, railway locomotives, warships, scientific instruments and even heraldry. Among his published works have been several studies of the Luger pistol; four editions of Rifles of the World; The Airgun Book; The Rifle Story and The Handgun Story; Guns of the Elite and its current successor, Guns of the Elite Forces; The German Rifle; and The Greenhill Dictionary of Guns and Gunmakers.